“Tiny Rebels”

Longtime Bonnie "Prince" Billy affiliate Emmett Kelly, aka the Cairo Gang, has a new "mini-album" coming out entitled Tiny Rebels. A one-man band that performs under a group-sized name releasing a mini-album with the word “tiny” in its title? Head-spinning. But that playful dichotomy between big and small turns out to be the anchor for the album’s title track, a pretty, march-like drone drenched in so much reverb the sunny vocal harmonies sound like they’re shining in through a pinhole.

Here-- and on all of Tiny Rebels, reportedly, out July 23 on Empty Cellar-- Kelly foregrounds the 12-string guitar, an instrument that doubles each note in higher registers in order to create a chiming, glassy sound. "Together we might be something important, too," he sings toward the middle of the song—and in the way of tiny rebels, there's a harmony vocal right there to back him up.